‘Mother of Sorrows’: Post-Partum Mental Disorder and the Law across Five Jurisdictions

Langer, Rosanna

doi:10.1080/13218719.2011.585129

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 21 publications

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“…The tendency to attribute women’s criminality to biological conditions is notorious in cases of neonaticide and filicide. Indeed, research on sentences for these types of crimes has often found explicit associations between offender behavior and a psychiatric postpartum disorder, which considerably mitigates the penalties applied (Gelsthorpe, 2004; Kauppi, Kumpulainen, Vanamo, Merikanto, & Karkola, 2008; Langer, 2012; Spinelli, 2004). In many cases, penal laws reference infanticide as a special type of homicide (Friedman, Cavney, & Resnick, 2012), as occurs in Portugal.…”

Section: Justice Crime and Gendermentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender Norms in Portuguese College Students’ Judgments in Familial Homicides

Saavedra

Cameira

Rebelo

et al. 2016

J Interpers Violence

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The gender of the offender has been proved to be an important factor in judicial sentencing. In this study, we analyze the judgments of College students regarding perpetrators of familial homicides to evaluate the presence of these gender norms and biases in the larger society. The sample included 303 college students (54.8% female) enrolled in several social sciences and engineering courses. Participants were asked to read 12 vignettes based on real crimes taken from Portuguese newspapers. Half were related to infanticide, and half were related to intimate partner homicide. The sex of the offender was orthogonally manipulated to the type of crime. The results show that gender had an important impact on sentences, with males being more harshly penalized by reasons of perversity and women less penalized by reason of mental disorders. In addition, filicide was more heavily penalized than was intimate partner homicide. The results also revealed a tendency toward a retributive conception of punishment. We discuss how gender norms in justice seem to be embedded in society as well as the need for intervention against the punitive tendency of this population.

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Section: Justice Crime and Gendermentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender Norms in Portuguese College Students’ Judgments in Familial Homicides

Saavedra

Cameira

Rebelo

et al. 2016

J Interpers Violence

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Infanticide

Brennan

Milne

2019

The Encyclopedia of Women and Crime

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Several jurisdictions have special infanticide laws that allow for lenient treatment of women who kill their infants. These laws, based on the English legislative model, typically allow for an infanticide charge/conviction where women kill their infants in mitigating circumstances. The rationale for lenient treatment is medical, namely that the woman was suffering from a disturbance in the balance of mind caused by the effects of childbirth or lactation consequent upon childbirth. Historically, infanticide laws were enacted because widespread sympathy for unmarried women who killed their infants caused difficulties for the efficient and effective prosecution of this offender. Infanticide laws sought to address these difficulties by formalizing lenient treatment. In the contemporary context, several problems with these laws have been identified, not least of which is the dubious medical rationale. Some jurisdictions have reformed their laws to address these criticisms.

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Mothers and mental illness: Breaking the silence about child loss

Weller

2019

International Journal of Law and Psychiatry

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‘Mother of Sorrows’: Post-Partum Mental Disorder and the Law across Five Jurisdictions

Cited by 3 publications

References 21 publications

Gender Norms in Portuguese College Students’ Judgments in Familial Homicides

Gender Norms in Portuguese College Students’ Judgments in Familial Homicides

Infanticide

Mothers and mental illness: Breaking the silence about child loss

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